In automation technology, field devices are often applied, which serve for registering and/or influencing process variables. Examples of such field devices are fill level measuring devices, mass flow measuring devices, pressure- and temperature measuring devices, etc., which, as sensors, register the corresponding process variables, fill level, flow, pressure, and temperature, respectively.
The parametering, configuration and state monitoring of the field devices of a fieldbus network occurs, as a rule, by means of a device access software installed in a host. In a typical device access software, the hierarchical structure of the fieldbus network is recreated with the assistance of device drivers, e.g. device description files. The arrangement of the device drivers, e.g. the device description files, resembles a mirror image of the structure of the device access software.
It is, consequently, an object of the invention, to provide a method and a control software module, with which the topology of a fieldbus network can be registered.